Thoughts on A Course in Miracles

When I did the A Course in Miracles Workbook practice in 1998, I did it with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No study groups. No ACIM teachers. Just willingness born of desperation because my personal life was so painful at that time.

I was HUNGRY and I placed my life, one day at a time, in the Hands of God. As I read the lessons, they felt right to me. I did not fight them. One year later, my life was transformed forever. Ever since, I have had an ongoing sense of well-being, also known as Peace of Mind.

What I’ve learned since then is that many of you fight against the Course, even though you wish you wouldn’t. Resistance prevents you from sticking with all 365 workbook lessons. Worse still, for many, you move through the lessons, but don’t have an experience that obviously removes “you” and reveals True You.

If you relate, my e-course, Workin’ the Workbook, is for you. It supports your ACIM Workbook practice in a unique way. There is no other program out there like this — one which promotes your experience so that you don’t avoid or resist and miss out on the very reason you are practicing the Workbook.

There’s a December holiday discount which ends at 12 midnight Pacific time, tomorrow. Are you hungry? Workin’ the Workbook lays a feast before you.

First thing in the morning, before you brush your teeth, as you emerge from sleep, even with your eyes still closed, feel around for the book.

Make sure to bookmark your lesson the day before, so you can go straight to it.

Flip open to the page, and while you’re still groggy, read and effortlessly absorb the mystical wisdom that Jesus is offering you. Your mental defenses are low while you’re groggy, easily allowing Grace to flow through while you’re still in your pjs 🙂

Because you’re sleepy-relaxed, it’s much easier for you to be a Truth-sponge without ego-interference. This is the proper use of your body — to be a well-attuned communication device. Then you are a clear channel for the Holy Spirit to transmit Love, Peace and Joy through.

Now you’ve started your day out right!

Jesus tells us, “Morning and evening we will practice thus.” (W-92) He says, “For morning and evening review.” (W-111-120) He promises, “Morning and evening do we gladly give a quarter of an hour to the search in which the end of hell is guaranteed.” (W-122)

Next time, we can talk about doing your lesson in bed just before you fall asleep … the risk being that you might fall asleep before you complete the lesson 🙂

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Let Workin’ the Workbook help you stick with all 365 lessons — which will be the best New Year’s Resolution you ever make. Usually, the program costs $37 a month on an ongoing basis, and you can take it for as long as you like. That’s just about a dollar a day. Some people have taken three years to move through the lessons at their own pace. Others do a lesson a day for 365 days. Most people fall somewhere in between.

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“And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware I am Your Son. As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love.” (W-232: Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.)

Jesus pulls no punches — in ACIM he tells us to connect with God just before falling asleep and immediately on awakening as a regular practice.

Consciously ask Him to be your Guest, and you will find, “I need do nothing, except not to interfere.” That’s a pretty famous phrase from the Course — it’s in Chapter 16, section I, which also talks about true empathy.

Doing nothing means you “let the Holy Spirit relate through you” — luminously glowing as “you” with relatives, friends, and people you are stuck with on long lines :). Even if they are griping, you can quietly shine (as long as you don’t interfere with your Inner Guide).

It’s easier not to interfere when you place your mind in the Holy Spirit’s Hands. One way is to let your eyes softly slide back towards your brain and melt sideways to your ears — sigh with relief as you feel your entire frontal lobe and skull relax … and … thoughts evaporate! Now it’s impossible to judge the usual suspects who get on your nerves 🙂

“To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand.” True empathy gives you the strength to offer sympathy, if appropriate, while refusing to tune into the ego thought system.

True empathy is a cure for codependency and narcissism. True empathy is the power of Love flowing through you … IF you invite the Holy Spirit to use your personality and body as a conduit for Love.

And if you need a gift idea, I’m so thankful that people say my book, Sweet Dreams ​​​​​​​of Awakening: 365 Good Night Blessings is a beautiful gift — click here to see for yourself. One lovely woman told me she reads it aloud to her granddaughter every evening before she falls asleep.

An undivided wholeness of flowing movement. What a delicious phrase! And it neatly encapsulates much of what I teach in the long sitting retreats I lead. Most of the time we experience ourselves as irrevocably separate from everything we can perceive to exist outside of ourselves, but when we truly awaken the body and start surrendering to a breath that can indeed “breathe through the whole body,” we gain access to an alternative dimension of consciousness in which our conventional sense of separation gives way to a ground state of union and undivided wholeness. And the way to this awakening of body—and the doorway into this entrancing dimension of undivided wholeness—is through relaxing so deeply that the body stays in a condition of constant, subtle, flowing, amoeba-like movement in resilient response to the breath. When the physical body stays moving in this way, the current of the life force can be felt to flow freely through as well.

An undivided wholeness of flowing movement. I wish I had come up with that phrase myself, but it comes from a far superior source. It’s the shorthand phrase that the quantum physicist David Bohm came up with to describe how he believes the universe is constructed. Bohm was one of the most respected quantum physicists of the last century, and toward the end of his life he began to intuit that our understanding of how reality is constructed needed a rather complete overhaul. For Bohm, there are two fundamental dimensions of reality, what he called the implicate and explicate orders. The implicate order (which he felt had been completely overlooked by science) was like a unified ground state or source out of which the entire explicate order—with its gajillion of stars and universes and atoms and subatomic particles, all of them constantly moving, twinkling, and shimmering—was projected, somewhat like how a complex holographic image is projected from a single light source. For Bohm, everything is constantly moving back and forth between both these dimensions, but at such a rapid rate that the world of appearances still manages to look solid and stable.

The Heart Sutra, one of Buddhism’s most revered texts, in an almost exact reflection of Bohm’s dual vision of an explicate and implicate order, tells us that everything that exists partakes of two dimensions—one of conventional physical form, the other of a deep underlying emptiness—and for me, one of the goals of spiritual practice is to have a direct experience of the simultaneous existence of these two dimensions. The easiest way to grasp this mind boggling understanding is to remember that, even though we look at people and recognize them by their very solid looking face and body, we don’t experience ourselves as particularly solid. Rather, we feel like some kind of openness or space that somehow pervades and permeates our very solid looking head and body. And if this dual condition of an apparent solidity permeated by an underlying intangible openness is true of you and me, why shouldn’t it be true of every other physical object as well? The ground dimension of undivided wholeness is very real, but the only way we can directly access this dimension is to make sure that our entire body remains in a condition of constant, flowing motion. If we remain stiff and frozen in our bodies, this extraordinary dimension will never appear to us, and we will completely miss the joy of wakening to its presence. So . . . flow on, and remember two things: 1) that constant flowing motion is what connects you to the source of all things, and 2) combining a simultaneous awareness of both—the dimension of undivided wholeness and the condition of flowing movement—takes you directly into your natural state.

I love Will Johnson — he embodies his work, and his work helps us experience the body the way the Holy Spirit in A Course in Miracles does — just in different language. I find different points of view and the fresh use of language are potent mind-openings. Hope you feel the immediate benefits of this wisdom. For more of Will’s work, visit embodiment.net

Yes, you! You are top of my gratitude list this Thanksgiving! Thank you for being my “partner-in-spirituality” 🙂

The Course says we each have a unique individual curriculum, and sharing how to use the body and emotions for the Holy Spirit’s purpose is mine. Thank you for your feedback about what works and what doesn’t, your questions, your sharing of miracles, and most of all, your love.

Like Lesson 197 says, “It can be but my gratitude I earn” — when I give you love, and you give me love, we mirror the Love we really are.

Of course, Thanksgiving is a perfect time to feel gratitude and Love, and yet … being around all those family members, or not having family, finding yourself stuck in traffic, or faced with so many tempting foods, can trigger so many less-than-Loving feelings. So …

against the roof of your mouth, just above your teeth.

Yesterday, if you followed my instructions, you took three full breaths, beginning with an exhale. Now, let’s add an element that pulls your thoughts right out of your head. This relieves anxiety, headaches, brain fog and, as ACIM puts it, “the thoughts you think you think” .

It may feel awkward at first, but play around until you get it. That’s what I did, and if I can, so can you 🙂 Read through, and then try this:

Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth, just above your teeth. Once your tongue feels okay there, press gently. Breathe naturally several times and let the nonsense in your head drop into your mouth and continue downwards until all ego mind-stuff plonks out the bottom of your feet. Mother Earth composts it 🙂

Tip #1: Place the palms of your hands on your thighs (if you are sitting). If standing, press palms of hands on a tabletop or against a tree trunk, whatever works.

Tip #2: Plant the soles of your feet firmly on the floor (barefoot is best; wearing shoes is okay, if necessary). Legs are parallel (uncrossed), feet are hip-width apart.

Warning: We’re working towards dancing 🙂 Have you noticed that “dance” is in “abundance” and “Guidance”? Just a clue that discovering your Inner Dance will liberate you in so many ways!

(If you’d like some personal coaching, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com — my work is really blossoming now, and I have less time available for private sessions, but if you are sincere and motivated, get in touch.)

You are my “peeps” and I love you. You’ve been reaching out asking me how to feel peaceful, how to cry frozen tears that just won’t come, how to stop obsessively thinking about what worries you.

You’ve also been sharing that applying Course principles has miraculously calmed you — but when I ask where in your body you experience that calm, for many there is an insight that your body is not feeling relaxed.

A Course in Miracles tells us in Chapter 8 that the Holy Spirit uses the body as a means of communication. Connecting more fully with your breath (without which your body will die in a matter of minutes) joins your mind with the Holy Spirit — which is the whole point of ACIM!

(If you’d like some personal coaching, email miracles (at) amytorresacim (dot) com — my work is really blossoming now, and I have less time available for one-to-one work, but if you are sincere and motivated, get in touch.)

… feeling the deep fear that rules the followers of both Hillary and Donald … but here’s the opportunity: resolve today to be a miracle worker.

When I heard the outcome of the presidential election this morning, to my surprise, I cried. The tears came from an ache of sadness that filled my chest, sank into my stomach, and rose into my throat.

It would have stopped there, but I took the time to breathe into the feelings, which allowed them to swell to completion. Tears filled my eyes, and a gentle rhythmic pulsing accompanied the emotion from eyes (blinking) to throat (gulping) to belly (moving in and out). The sadness moved through, and a renewed sense of inspiration and clarity emerged: Love is the answer, and being a miracle worker is the way.

If I had just “got on with my day” the feelings would have been interrupted, suppressed, and stored in my body — serving the ego’s purpose of keeping a supply of fear trapped in my muscles, tissues, organs, limbs, etc. The ego calls this being responsible (stuff has got to be done!), rather than self-indulgent (tears won’t solve anything) and more.

Your opportunity is this: resolve today to be a miracle worker. Working miracles happens through the Mind, not your head. You need to unclog your communication device — the body!) — by working with the frozen, stiff, trapped gunk you’ve been unconsciously using the body to store for the ego. That’s what the ego made the body for — to be a fear-based separation machine.

The experiential work I offer melts away fear, loneliness, anxiety, depression, hatred, resentment, resistance, and opens you up to use the body for the Holy Spirit’s loving purpose — for you to be a clear conduit for miracles.

Read my blog (free), watch my videos (free), and when you’re ready to really step up the work (what better time than now?) set up a private session with me (priceless). Email miracles@amytorresacim.com — my work is really blossoming now, and I have less time available for one-to-one work, but if you are sincere and motivated, get in touch.

For many years, when the Course spoke of gratitude, something in me objected, because I felt that Jesus was accusing me of being ungrateful. Even though I knew better, there was still a deep feeling of uneasiness and resentment that I had done something wrong, I should be grateful that I was not being punished, and the payback was that I had to feel indebted.

Ego interpreted gratitude as being forced to say “thank you” when I did not want to; as being obligated to feel happy when I did not. Of course, I felt guilty that I was having this negative reaction to gratitude. How unspiritual could I get?

My guilt was compounded as many people in my life expressed heartfelt gratitude about God’s Love, their eyes filled with sincere tears, and I grew angrier and more ashamed of my ungrateful attitude. I did not want to feel ungrateful. But I had to admit that I did.

Still, I was a dedicated Course student and determined to apply its practices. Jesus tells us to be honest, to trust him, and to practice forgiveness, not just towards others, but also towards ourselves. I knew the Holy Spirit undoes everything the ego made IF I chose to give Him my beliefs. So I prayed.

I approach prayer conversationally, so I told Jesus, “I’m willing to give you my resistance to gratitude BUT FIRST…” and went into all the nasty details of my objections (there was some shouting and swearing involved). And what do you know? In return, He thanked me!

It was supremely healing to encounter this divine reversal: I gave Spirit all my ingratitude and received Gratitude in return. Emptied of all my grievances, all that was left was Unconditional Love.

Holy Spirit clarified that I was not ungrateful, just triggered by my interpretation of gratitude. He guided me to Lesson 14, “The idea for today is another step in learning to let go the thoughts you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place.” And He kindly suggested that I substitute the word “appreciation” for “gratitude” until the issue was entirely purified and the words didn’t matter anymore. Doing this helped me realize how very appreciative I am.

He also led me to Lesson 197, “It can be but my gratitude I earn,” which illuminates the spiritual law that giving is receiving. In other words, when I’m willing to live from the Light which I am,
my appreciation for others is based on the inner light we share, no matter what their opinions or behavior. “The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours.”

Right about this time, someone told me the word “grateful” means “greatful” as in: we are full of Greatness. As I tried on this new definition for size, there was a holy instant of release in which Greatness extended Itself naturally, producing a profound relaxation which stilled my thoughts and spread through my muscles and limbs. As Lesson 155 promises, my forehead was serene; my eyes were quiet.

These days, I gratefully find myself here: “Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back, and no implacable resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections, and a little hesitance, but you can well be grateful for your gains, which are far greater than you realize.” (W-123: I thank my Father for His gifts to me.)

Let us appreciate these gains together. If you’re having trouble, remember, the quickest route to gratitude is admitting your ingratitude to the Holy Spirit and accepting His merciful release.

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This article first appeared in the Sept-Oct 2016 issue of MiracleWorker UK magazine.